Pressure roller devices for the wet treatment of textile materials



May 31, 1966 c: VALLS 3,253,433

PRESSURE ROLLER DEVI [CBS FOR THE WET TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed Feb. 20, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l ll ll II II II I INVENTOR P76. 4 con/e400 l ALLS y 1966 c. VALLS 3,253,433

PRESSURE ROLLER DEVICES FOR THE WET TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed Feb. 20, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR F/G. 5 com/2400 V4LL$ United States Patent PRESSURE ROLLER DEVICES FOR THE WET TREATMENT OF TEXTILE MATERIALS Conrado Valls, Consejo de Ciento 401, 3, 2a,

Barcelona, Spain Filed Feb. 20, 1964, Ser. No. 346,350 Claims priority, application Spain, Feb. 23, 1963, 285,669

8 Claims. (CI. 68-22) This invention relates to improvements in pressure roller devices in the wet or water phase treatment of textile materials such as in scouring, bleaching, dyeing, steeping, acidifying, washing and other wet operations.

The above operations are applicable to textile articles such as woven cloth and it is an object of the invention that the treatment shall be continuous while the fabric is advanced at a constant predetermined speed throughout the entire length of the piece to be treated.

By reason of the continuous passage of the fabric, the improved pressure roller devices according to the invention may be applied to articles of characteristic endless lengthwise formation such as rovings, yarns, flexible lami nations and others.

In many of the wet treatments above described it is necessary during the course of treatment that the textile pass through several sets of pressure rollers where the application of pressure causes a treatment liquid to penetrate into the body of the textile, while causing a squeezing out of the major part of the liquid received from the previous treatment stage, thus leaving the material able to receive treatment from successive stages.

Since all textiles are susceptible to appreciable variations in length as much due to elongation as to contraction produced either by applied stress or chemically during the process, a number of independent pressure roller sets must be used which are driven in synchronization. Heretofore this called for expensive speed synchronization apparatus for the individual pressure roller sets and their driving motors.

The requirement for pressure rollers with attendant synchronization apparatus is one of the primary contributors to the elevated cost of these machines, whereas no matter how simple the synchronization and regulating equipment may be, its inherent complexity subjects it to breakdowns and interruptions in production.

It is a further object of the invention to provide pressure rollers which avoid the use of independent sets of rollers which are synchronized. According to an embodiment of the invention there are provided a plurality of rollers'in a quantity related to the arrangement of the path of the textile through said rollers and to a bath for the treatment of the textile. The rollers may be arranged in a straight line, in a broken line, in rows, horizontally, vertically or obliquely. The rollers press against one another. Only one of the rollers need be driven externally, the others all being driven by pressure contact with one another.

An advantage of this arrangement resides in the elimination of all intermediate electromotors, only one motor being necessary to drive a single one of the rollers, which is preferably the first roller in the sequence. While only one roller need be externally driven, it is possible to drive other of the rollers if desired from the single motor.

Another advantage of the above arrangement is that each of the rollers is driven by tangential contact with adjacent rollers to develop a force between rollers of considerable magnitude to obtain the desired squeezing efiFect. Moreover, practically no interslipping of adjacent rollers is encountered whereby desired synchronization of drive of the rollers is obtained.

The pressure rollers are provided with limited lateral displacement according to the hardness of the cover 3,253,433 Patented May 31, 1966 material of the rollers, the thickness of the cover material and the adherent pressure of the cover material on the roller base. Such lateral displacement is obtained according to one embodiment by means of bearings supported in elongated tracks, and which bearings are suitably guided to prevent any displacement normal to the lateral displacement which could be produced by the high compression forces between the rollers.

The bearings are constructed to permit the pressure rollers to freely rotate in addition to providing for the lateral displacement.

In order to establish circulation of the textile through a vat containing a treatment bath, guide rollers and return rollers are provided which may be freely rotatable so as to be rotated by the textile itself, or these latter rollers may be driven at a desired speed according to the requirements of the textile and its treatment, such speed being either greater or less circumferentially than the linear speed of the textile, thus providing for obtaining a controlled tension in the textile.

It is a feature of the invention that the pressure force between adjacent rollers can be controlled by the adjustable displacement of a single end roller, which may also be the driven pressure roller whereby the degree of squeezing and speed of advancement of the textile being treated is obtained solely by adjusting a single member.

For a further understanding of the invention, reference is made to several embodiments of the invention in the following drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view partially in section of a first embodiment showing the arrangement of the pressure rollers in a straight line;

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation similar to FIGURE 1 showing a portion thereof according to a second embodiment; 1

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view along the line IIIIII in FIGURE 1 showing the arrangement of the guide rollers and pressure rollers;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IVIV in FIG. 3; and

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line VV in FIG. 1.

In the drawings there are shown a plurality of pressure rollers successively in contact one with the next. There are provided two end rollers 3, 5 and a plurality of intermediate rollers 4. The end roller 3 is supported for free rotation about a fixed axis in bearing 10 (FIG. 3). The intermediate rollers 4 are rotatably supported in bearings 20 (FIG. 4). The bearings 20 are supported on bearing plates 21 which are slidably supported in slides 28 which are secured to frame 9. The plates 21 are longitudinally slidable in the slides 28 and are limited in the direction of sliding by being restricted against transverse displacement by the slides 28.

The roller 5 is supported in bearings 30 which in turn are supported on plates 27 which are slidably supported in slides 28. Thus roller 5 is therefore also displaceable in a longitudinal direction. Supported on plates 27 is a frame 26 supporting motor 25. A belt 24 drives the roller 5 in rotation from the motor 25. The motor underlgoes common longitudinal displacement with the roller 5 since the motor 25 and roller 5 are supported together from the plate 27. The roller 5 is adapted for being longitudinally displaced by the displacement of shaft 14 which is supported in the elongated opening 29 in lever 13. The rollers 4 may therefore be pressed against one another and against the end roller 3 under the pressure exerted by the end. roller 5 when the same is displaced towards the rollers 4. The lever 13 is pivotally supported at one end by pivot 15 which is secured to frame 9. The lever 13 is pivotally displaced in controlled manner by the application of force to the lever by bar 11 which is connected to lever 13 at pivot 12. By controlling the displacement of roller 5, the pressure of the rollers against one another is regulated. The bar 11 may be displaced by any suitable mechanical linkage or hydraulic control in a manner well known in the art.

Whereas any .of the rollers may be externally driven in order to drive the rollers as a consequence of the pressure between the rollers, the roller 5 is shown as being driven by motor 25, the arrows indicating the direction of rotation of all the rollers. Thus, by regulating the position of roller 5 and the speed of the drive thereof, the drive of all the other rollers is adjusted accordingly and the pressure between the rollers is controlled. Therefore a single roller 5 may control the conditions of operation of the pressure rollers.

In order to provide a desired path for the sheet of textile material 2 within a vat or chamber 1 containing the treatment liquid, there is provided guide means constituted by lower rollers 6 and guide rollers 7. These rollers 6, 7 maintain the sheet of textile material 2 in the desired path wherein a series of loops are formed and the material is alternately fed between adjacent pressure rollers 4 irrespective of the position of the displaceable rollers 4. The rollers 6, 7 also serve to eliminate wrinkles in the textile material by holding the same taut.

FIGURE 2 shows a second arrangement of the pressure compression rollers 4 wherein the rollers are alternately raised or lowered to be distributed in two rows of rollers 4 and 4 If desired the lateral pressure exerted on the rollers by roller 5 may be supplemented or substituted by a vertical pressure applied to the shafts of the raised rollers 4 This may be achieved by means of a framework (not shown) supporting the rollers 4 for vertical displacement.

FIGURE 3 shows in detail the seals 8 for the shafts 16 .of the lower rollers 6 in the vat 1. The bearings are shown fixedly supported from frame 9 while the bearings 17 of the guide rollers 6 are also supported from frame 9. These latter bearings 17 may be adjustably supported in frame 9, if desired, to adjust the tension in the sheet.

The arrangement of the pressure rollers described above may be satisfactorily complemented by any mechanical, electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic means for the application of stress to the sheet of textile material by passing the same through a series of tension rollers aligned separately from the pressure rollers and provided also with compensating rollers situated between the compression rollers and the return rollers.

From the foregoing description it is evident that apart from the squeezing process effected by the assembly of compression rollers, and in view of the contemplated path of the textile material, that the latter moves away from the pressure rollers after each zone of compression between pressure rollers, to pass over return rollers to subsequently pass through another compression zone. This operation is repeated successively as many times as the number of rollers in the machine, so that the textile material in the vat beneath the pressure rollers may receive the desired treatment according to the wet process.

Numerous modifications and variations of the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for squeezing a sheet of material while advancing the same along a desired path, said apparatus comprising a plurality of rotatable rollers arranged adjacent one another and including two end rollers and intermediate rollers, means supporting one of the end rollers for free rotation about a fixed axis, the remainder of the rollers being supported for displacement, means for guiding the sheet between adjacent rollers, means 'for displacing the end roller which is supported for displacement with respect to the other of the rollers to cause said end roller to press all of the remainder of the rollers against one another and means coupled to the displaceable end roller to drive the same in rotation to cause all the rollers to rotate in synchronization as a result of the developed pressure between the rollers whereby the rollers will squeeze the material passing therebetween while advancing the material.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said rollers have axes of rotation which are aligned in a single plane.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the means for displacing the said one roller is a lever having one end pivotally supported and an opposite displaceable end, only said one roller being supported from the lever at a location intermediate said ends thereof.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for guiding the sheet between adjacent rollers includes freely rotatable guide rollers over which the sheet is adapted to pass to drive the guide rollers, said guide rollers being located in vertical alignment with every other one of those rollers around which the sheet does not pass.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the end rollers are of larger diameter and the intermediate rollers are of smaller equal diameter.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the displaceable and driven roller is the first roller in the series while the other end roller is the last roller in the series.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 comprising guide rollers vertically displaced from the first mentioned rollers for engaging the sheet of material and defining a path therefor composed of a series of loops which pass around every other of said first mentioned rollers and a vat containing said guide rollers such that at least a portion of the loops of material pass through the vat which is adapted for containing a treating solution for the material.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising means supporting the displaceable end roller and the means for driving the same for common displacement.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 721,630 2/1903 Willard 68--22 735,175 8/1903 Torrance l62 786,264 4/ 1905 Butterworth 6822 1,932,105 10/1933 Hinnekens 68175 2,300,994 11/1942 'Ihiele et al. 100-172 X 2,603,077 7/1952 Dungler 68-43 3,044,392 7/ 1962 Minarik 100--172 FOREIGN PATENTS 361,372 4/1906 France.

998,843 9/1951 France.

809,199 2/1959 Great Britain.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR SQUEEZING A SHEET OF MATERIAL WHILE ADVANCING THE SAME ALONG A DESIRED PATH, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF ROTATABLY ROLLERS ARRANGED ADJACENT ONE ANOTHER AND INCLUDING TWO END ROLLERS AND IANTERMEDIATE ROLLERS, MEANS SUPPORTING ONE OF THE END ROLLERS FOR FREE ROTATION ABOUT A FIXED AXIS, THE REMAINDER OF THE ROLLERS BEING SUPPORTED FOR DISPLACEMENT, MEANS FOR GUIDING THE SHEET BETWEEN ADJACENT ROLLERS, MEANS FOR DISPLACING THE END ROLLER WHICH IS SUPPORTED FOR DISPLACEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE OTHER OF THE ROLLERS TO CAUSE SAID END ROLLER TO PRESS ALL OF THE REMAINDER OF THE ROLLERS 